Ghost in the Drift
by auraleek
Summary: Pilots have died in the drift before, Yancy wasn't the first. The Gipsy though? She's the first Jaeger to be recommissioned and rebuilt. Raleigh wasn't anyone's first choice to pilot her, one failed shot was all anyone got, well anyone except for Yancy. For Yancy only Raleigh would work.


Authors Note: For some reason before I watched this movie I had this expectations... and the entire I film I was waiting for something to happen that never did.. so I wrote this to resolve my issues and because there was just too much wtf.

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**Chapter One**

"That's the fourth failed activation Marshall. I think it's to change our tactics, Raleigh Beckett piloted the Gipsy Danger... bring him back in and see if he can make her move." Herc suggested quietly.

The Marshall stood unspeaking for a moment, staring through the glass of the viewing platform at the Gipsy, before releasing a long sigh.

"Why are we hesitating to bring in Beckett?" Herc persisted, he'd known the kid briefly before. Of the two brothers he'd liked Yancy better, he was more focused, handling the bulk of the machine took a toll on you, forced you to think in different ways. Raleigh had always been more excitable, really just young... he hadn't been bad though. He would do well enough to pilot again.

"I'm afraid to admit he might be right." The marshal replied, finally relenting. "We kept him connected to a drift trainer when we got him back, after the incident in Anchorage. His readings were off the chart, we couldn't pull him out of the drift. He was in and out of it... it was tragic, sometimes he was Yancy and sometimes he was Raleigh."

"He got lost?"

"No. Much worse, it was like a… a complete download. Took months of therapy to get him back to himself, and even then he wasn't the same."

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"-I spent the last three months activating everything I could get my hands on, an old jaeger, mark three. You may know it. It needs a pilot." The Marshall said confidently, looking at him as if he already knew the answer to a question he hadn't asked.

He looked exactly as Raleigh remembered. Looking down at his own scarred hands it was a reminder he didn't want that he had changed. He wasn't the cocky young pilot of a mark three jaeger, he was a beat down has been who had spent five years building a wall that the kaiju had spent less than an hour destroying.

"I'm guessing I wasn't your first choice." He said with a wry grin. He wasn't even his own first choice.

"You are my first choice, my only choice, all the other mark three pilots are dead." The Marshall replied.

Raleigh briefly wondered how that made a difference, they could train new pilots for the Gipsy, there were he was sure, lines of candidates even with the jaeger program shutting down.

"Look. I can't have anyone else in my head again... I'm done... I was still connected to my brother when he died." Raleigh shot back, fighting to keep his voice even. "I can't go through that again, I'm sorry."

"Haven't you heard Mr. Beckett? The world is coming to an end, so where would you rather die, here or in a jaeger?" The marshal tried again.

"No... Without Yancy... I can't pilot. Drift compatibility is rare, you know that! It could take years to reach drift compatible levels with someone new."

"There isn't anyone else, the Gipsy Danger... well it has to be you piloting that jaeger. It's not negotiable. I'll find you the co-pilot, all you need to do is come with me." The marshal said, this time with a slight note of pleading in his voice.

Raleigh sighed, he looked around out that half-finished wall that wasn't going to keep anything and thought about the Gipsy. Piloting the Gipsy he had felt invincible, nothing could stop him when he was in her... maybe he thought that was a feeling he needed again.

He gave the Marshall one long look before nodding, he would give it a chance. Even if he couldn't pilot her it would be nice to see the Gipsy again.

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Hong Kong was certainly nothing like his glory days with Yancy and the Gipsy. The fact that they sported three functional jaegers and the Gipsy who had half a pilot was really only the beginning. The worst was in front of him, they wanted him to fight a lineup of pilot candidates to judge drift compatibility? Had they lost their minds? He would think it was a joke if not for the seriousness of Stackers expression. What would this tell them though? That he could take them in a fight didn't mean much, maybe that they could handle the body mechanics... but if it was just about mechanics pilots would be a dime a dozen. It was about drift, and that wasn't going to be proven by muscles.

He didn't question it though, he tossed them to the floor one after another and waited for something... the real test... whatever it was, because it wasn't this.

The girl though, Stacker's assistant, with the clipboard and the judgmental expression, she was interesting in a way that the rest of the candidates weren't. She wanted it. He'd seen her face when she looked at the Gipsy... hell he'd seen the changes made the Gipsy and they weren't for him. The addition of the sword had been a surprise, he and Yance were fist fighters, a sword was nice but they couldn't use it, he couldn't use it. Miss Mori must have requisitioned the blade for her own use. She hadn't planned on handing her over, she'd intended to pilot the Gipsy herself. So why wasn't she? Why had Stacker called him back, what had changed? The thought echoed through his head he slammed another candidate to the floor, what was different now that compatibility didn't matter?

"Four points to two." Mako announced in a monotone with that... that look. The one she kept giving him. What was her problem, if she wanted to pilot so damn bad then why wasn't she out here testing?

"Okay what? You don't like them? I thought you selected them personally." He asked, finally challenging her.

"Excuse me?" She asked, once again giving him one of those little half a second looks.

"Every time a match ends you make this little - "He paused to try and mimic that little grimace she kept making, "- gesture. Like you're critical of that performance."

"It's not their performance, it's yours. Your gambit. You could have taken all of them two moves earlier." She critiqued.

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"You said you've never piloted a jaeger, but you want to right?" He asked, looking her straight in the eyes, he was sick of the attitude around here and now felt like a damn good time to say something. "I'm going to just assume you've graduated the Academy training program, and that being the case this shouldn't be too hard for you to work out. So I want you to take a moment and tell me why a pilot fights differently from a cadet."

"There is no difference." She replied. "Cadets receive no further combat training once they are selected. Personal combat styles aside, there is no change in combat ability when a cadet assumes a piloting position."

"No. That's where you are wrong." He replied snapping his words out with an eagerness that only came from knowing you are absolutely right. "A jaeger pilot fights with one hemisphere. I fought right hemisphere, left side. So outside of a jaeger what's the difference between a pilot and a pilot candidate? Experienced pilots have a slowed reaction time on one side, the brain begins to rely on signals from the co-pilot, so on my right side my reactions are slower." He paused a moment, swallowing back the lump in his throat. "Five years later and I'm still waiting for Yancy to finish my thoughts."

Mori stilled, was she feeling bad because he'd played the Yancy card or did she really not know? He was half a man when he fought, all pilots were. How fast were they pushing out potentials that this wasn't covered? He and Yance were both right-handed and they'd spent months fighting over who had to take the left side of the body. He'd practiced night and day using his left side so they'd be able to function as a working pair.

"Do you understand Miss Mori?" He asked none too gently before turning to look at the Marshall. "These combat trials aren't for the candidates, they're for me. The point is not to defeat my opponent, it's to prove I can do it using my right arm. I need to... or you can't put me back in Gipsy... can you?"

"You are the right side pilot? You fight with the left body?" She asked in confusion.

"Not anymore." He replied with a sigh, grasping his left shoulder tightly. "I doubt that my left arm is strong enough. Beyond that... the left hemisphere should be the more experienced pilot, it bears the brunt if the neural load. So now you understand the stakes, let's change this up. Get down here and prove you can fight, show me how your logic trumps my unpredictability... what you would have done differently. Keep focus on the left side of your body... that's your side."

She turned eagerly to Stacker looking for consent. She was dying to get in the cockpit, he could practically smell the eagerness. If he was going to work with anyone here, it might as well be someone who wanted it. She was kind of cute too... he could maybe turn that into drift ability. Yance had dragged a girl or two into the cockpit back in the day for fun. It had been rank with their thoughts for a week or two... but Yance was Yance and he just got over it.

Stacker didn't even hesitate, "No. Stick to the cadet list we have ranger. Only candidates with drift compatibility."

"I do have compatibility Marshall." Mako quickly rebutted.

"It's not just a neural connection, Mako. It's also about physical..." The Marshal began.

"It's about neither and you know it." He interrupted, his frustration at situation getting the better of him. "If you wanted a pilot compatible with me then this place would be teeming with personnel I've already worked with, that Yance worked with. You would've brought up my cousins from California. Anything but complete strangers. Hell... they're all Chinese! How many memories do you think we're going to have in common?"

The Marshall opened his mouth to speak but Raleigh cut him off. "Why am I here? Why didn't you train a new piloting team?"

"I did. Three actually." The Marshall admitted evenly drawing all the attention in the room. "They can't make her move. The closest connection we've made was a test run with Herc and Chuck Hanson. Herc couldn't sync with the right side at all, the system locked him out. Chuck made a limited connection on the left side though, best we've managed. The only thing he picked up in the drift was a name, your name."

"My name?" He asked in confusion, he'd met Herc once before... but never Chuck. Why would his name be in Chuck's drift?

"Just your name. We're certain he connected with something, but we don't know what. All we know is that it's looking for you."

"Then let me choose a copilot, and get back in the cockpit." He said as he gestured the girl forward.

The Marshall nodded at her this time, "its three strikes to win."

He relaxed his body as best he could while she prepared herself. He tensed himself and then slowly, purposefully allowed each muscle to relax. He focused on the feeling of his feet shifting lazily on the mat and the tingling of the wounds on his left side. He needed to be centered to be in the moment, to fight with everything he had because she was in it to win.

In a fit of inspiration he tossed the staff behind him, he and Yance had always fought with their fists. If he wanted to fight well, to fight to win then he needed to lose to toys and get serious.

He slid into his opening stance raising his hands up to guard and waited for her. She could make the first move, after all the white piece played first and of the two of them she was certainly less stained, she had a sort of innocence about her that he hadn't had in years.

She looked at his discarded weapon for only a moment before raising yours. "An interesting gambit."

He nodded but didn't respond. Yancy never liked to taunt his opponents he was focused and direct. There was no hidden agenda just knowing you could win. He needed that right now, he needed to remember what Yancy did... how he fought...how his other half was supposed to respond. He needed to be a whole person, not just half.

She twirled her staff in a somewhat flashy maneuver that reminded him of himself, way back when. He responded without thinking, lunging forward and catching it with his right arm. Yancy's arm... it was Yancy's move... he always detested wasted energy. He never liked it when Raleigh would show off, always rebuked him. He hesitated for a second unsure of how to explain himself before the words just came, Yancy's words, "Nothing flashy. Don't waste anything, that's how we die. Understand?"

She nodded uncertainly and he backed off, she seemed as startled by his as he was. The ease at which he fell into Yancy's patterns was unsettling, the way he stepped into his position... the drift was a dangerous place, you never left it the same as you went in.

He raised his guard again and she lifted her staff without any fancy twirls or twists, just ready to attack. She was off balance though, his display had unsettled her. He edged forward, slowly, one foot at a time as if daring her to strike. She didn't though and flashed in quicker his fist stopping just before impact with her skull.

Point to him.

He nodded and stepped back politely but she charged forward as he was collecting his bearings intent on taking the next point. He pivoted to the side letting her staff fall next to him instead of on top of him and while she turned to respond he swung out with his leg and knocked hers out from beneath her. She hit the mat with an audible thud and he responded quickly pinning her arms with his left hand and raising his right fist to tap gently on head.

Point to him.

He held her down for just a moment before releasing her. He thought briefly about letting her have a point. He wanted to let her win just a little, to see if winning could make her grin, could give her a chance at the Gipsy. Another part of him, the part that was less distinctly him, reminded him to be professional, to give it his all and find the best possible pilot match.

He let her up slowly, waiting for her to try and throw him down the mat or strike out when he looked unprepared. She didn't though. They both settled back into a starting position and this time he held back as she circled him.

She made several fakes towards him, checking his reactions, before she swung her staff out towards his right side. He raised his arms to block and she reversed the motion stopping her swing just before she connected with left side. It would have been a good hit, a weak spot where the kaiju had torn into him... scar tissue was never as strong as the original.

Point to her.

He inclined his head towards her and backed up. Once again she attacked first, lunging forward to strike. He blocked her staff with arm, the wood hitting hard against his bared skin but not so much that it bothered him. He grabbed the staff with his other arm and twisted it out of her grip before swinging it around to it rested at her throat.

Point to him and match.

"You fight well. But you lean too much on standard procedure, you need to be more unpredictable, take risks. I went to the academy to you know, we all learnt the same thing." He said, holding out the staff for her to take back.

"I've seen all that I need to see." The Marshall announced to the room, ending the trials.

"I have too." Raleigh replied with some enthusiasm, reaching an arm around Mako's shoulders in a friendly gesture. "She's going to be my copilot."

"That's not going to work." The Marshal said firmly, dismissing the suggestion.

"Why not?" He asked in confusion. If he had let her get down here and try out he must have at least been considering it, or else why get her hopes up?

"Because I said so Mr. Beckett. I've made my decision. You will report in tomorrow, your copilot assignment will be ready by then." The Marshall replied, turning his back and leaving and in what Raleigh knew to be a cop out. There was more to this than anyone was saying, and he was going to find it out.

'What's his deal anyway?" He asked flippantly turning to Mako with the best attempt at a grin he could manage.

She gave him that look again, the one that had started this whole episode. He could tell now… it was disappointment.

"I just meant that you should pilot with me. You want to don't you? We don't just have to obey every order." He said, desperately backtracking.

"It's not about obeying or disobeying." She chided. "It's about respect."

He threw his hands up in the air in defeat as she walked away. There was no winning with women, he'd always known that. The fairer sex had always eluded him, the closest he usually got was the rancid aftertaste of their thoughts in the Gipsy after Yance had been showing off to one floozy or another in the cockpit.

He watched her leave and as the crowd of potentials thinned out he saw a familiar face departing, Chuck Hanson. Herc's arrogant son with the attitude problem, he'd made it clear what he thought about Raleigh's return already. He couldn't blame him for being interested, but the real show was tomorrow and that made him wonder… why was he here now?

He ducked his head low and tailed him out the door, not trying to keep his presence a secret but rather letting the boy take the lead. He led the two of them through a winding trail of corridors that Raleigh didn't recognize and frankly made him a bit nervous about Chuck's intentions, until they entered the observation room above the jaeger deck. He led him past Striker's data tables into the center of the room to an open screen with the Gipsy's layout.

"I think no one is going to tell you. They're just going to hope for the best and let you get inside blind. I don't like you, but you should know." Chuck began, his hands racing across the screen to bring up a series of photos.

"The Costanza twins were the first. They piloted the Wrecking Ball before it was scrapped, about a year after yours. It was a Mark Three, so they were the ideal candidates. Manuel died hours after they pulled him out, severe internal hemorrhaging, was like his body just ripped itself apart. His brother? Well Isaac is still alive, if a heartbeat counts as life. He was brain-dead in seconds. They don't know what caused it."

Raleigh took in a frantic breath, was this what they were hiding? The Gipsy was offing her pilots?

Chuck pulled three more photos up, pairs of young Chinese men… probably trained right here on this base. "They reset the Gipsy's systems… more like rebuilt really. They ripped out most of the old hardware and rewrote as many of her base programs as they could. Then they trained three brand new teams of pilots. Not one of them could make her move, she wouldn't drift at all."

Raleigh let out a relieved breath, just a malfunction then.

Chuck settled down on a chair in front of him, several times he looked as though he was going to continue but he didn't know where to start.

"What happened next? There's more to this isn't there?" Raleigh pressed lightly. Chuck didn't like him to start with, the last thing he wanted to do was chase him off… it was apparent that no one else had planned on letting him in on any of this.

"Striker was transferred over here. That's what happened next." Chuck said running his hands across his face in agitation. "Do you remember Manila in 2019? The Lucky Seven assisted in a kaiju assault with the Gipsy Danger and Horizon Brave?"

Raliegh nodded slowly. He did remember that, it was where he had met Herc and Scott Hanson their jaegers had been called in to assist after the Horizon Brave had been damaged trying to defend.

"My Dad piloted the Lucky Seven with my Uncle Scott back then." Chuck paused for just a moment, before continuing. "Pentecost thought… well I don't know what he thought but he had us run an activation trial. He said he wanted experienced pilots, someone who had seen the Gipsy in action before… and around here that's just my Dad."

Raleigh nodded again, but like Chuck he didn't understand the reasoning. Experience might help, but if you four teams couldn't make the Gipsy function, a fifth wasn't going to change that.

"I took the right side and Dad took the left. He couldn't drift at all, he said it was like he had been locked out. I drifted though… I stayed up the night before watching vids of the Gipsy in action, I wanted it to work we need another functional jaeger." Chuck said his eyes averted.

"What did you see in the drift? Pentecost said… he said you heard my name… that's why they reactivated me."

"I didn't just hear your name… I saw you… It was like I drifted with a ghost, your brother's ghost. For just a second, I'm sure I drifted with him." Chuck finished before abruptly standing. "And if you tell anyone about this I will smash you into the ground like kaiju shit."

Raliegh nodded but he wasn't really paying attention. Chuck had drifted with Yancy? That wasn't possible.


End file.
